A scammer, posing as a grandson, gets a grandmother to willingly give up thousands of dollars in one of the new scams that is becoming more popular amongst scam artists.

Here’s what happened:  Earlier this week a supposed Grandson called his Grandmother, out of the blue, to ask for money because he got arrested at the Winter Olympics in Canada and needs $3000 for bail.  Grandma feels bad, and because it is time sensitive, sends the money right away only to find out that her real Grandson never called at all.

This begs the question, “How did the scammer find out the Grandson’s name and so much information about him?” All you friendly bloggers out there will not be surprised…the scammer got it from your very own public family blog that you update everyday!

Here are some red flags: time sensitive, foreign country, called you out of the blue.

Here is what you should do if anyone wants anything from you:

  • Take your time to figure out the problem
  • Call someone else to verify the information
  • Identify who you are talking to with certainty

Another good tip is to take time to make those blogs private or don’t be so free to write detailed information about your family on them.

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